Assignment

Consumer Behavior

Submitted by:

Mou Saha

1927639

Two paradigm shifts of consumer behavior are as follows:

1) Positivist approach:

From owning to co-creating:

The consumers nowadays are rather interested in adding value to the product in some ways
than just owning the product. Traditional form of new product development (NPD) requires
understanding the customer needs and then finding ways to solve their problems/needs. Often
consumers’ latent needs are hard to decode and hence the company may not end up meeting
those needs. This is where the firm needs participation from the consumers in adding value to
the NPD process. It can be in the form of idea to actually being part of manufacturing
process. Another reason (apart from ownership) why this kind of shift is occurring is due to
the distrust among consumer regarding marketing communications of a product. The figure
below illustrates the different types of Co-creation.

Fig 1: Types of Co-creation

 Some of the companies which actively promote co-creation are- Unilever, IKEA, Lego etc.
Technology such as 3-D printing is also starting to affect the process of co-creation and
taking the idea to next level. Companies like Thingiverse provides users with a platform
wherein they can download the product design (in the form of codes) they like and with the
help of a 3-D printer they can manufacture on their own. This will disrupt the whole supply
chain and distribution channels by nullifying all the middle man. The consumer, in this case
will also be the manufacturer.

2) Interpretivist approach:

Concerns regarding data privacy:

Data in today’s world is the new big thing. Consumers are unpredictable in opting for a
product or service. Businesses have problem in identifying which consumers are profitable or
will be brand loyal. Analytics or marketing analytics has developed various algorithms to
decode the problem. But the issue with data privacy will be a concern for the consumers.

Analytics has various applications – analyzing the consumer churn or consumer buying
patterns, finding out who will your loyal consumers, etc. These analytical algorithms and
market research need vast amount of data. The concern here is whether or not the data
collected is by proper means, handled in legal ways, processed, reserved and finally deleted
as per the wish of the data subjects (consumers providing data). Since the wave of
digitization is new so not much guidelines or laws have been implemented in India or across
other countries with regards to privacy of consumer data. From the social aspect too, the
consumers are not aware of their data privacy. Also, the organizations who are the carriers
and processors of big data are rather interested in only gathering and processing the date than
safely, securely, responsibly safeguarding the data. This pose a looming threat to consumer
data security.

The concern towards data privacy is still in books as the idea of owning data has not been
fully developed in the minds of the people yet. It lacks facts and figures to quantify the
concern of consumers regarding their data privacy.
References:
 https://www.braineet.com/blog/co-creation-examples/#:~:text=IKEA,customers%20for
%20product%20idea%20suggestions
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235306810_Customer_Co-
Creation_A_Typology_and_Research_Agenda
 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/consumer-
data-privacy-and-personalization-at-scale